Journos drown in a pool of mediocrity

There's a new man in my life. Well, a new male. He's my baby son - Thomas, born five weeks ago, on February 23rd. Our first boy, after two girls, the same pattern of births as my parents. He's been smiling for a day or two now, but I'd missed out - until today. Amazing how a certain arrangement of those tiny cheeks can change your life. Sorry to gush.

So Thorpie, the Thorpedo, the ol' Thorpmeister, has returned an abnormal drugs test. Well, he did four and a half months ago. Funny how the news has only just emerged, the week of the World Championships. He's clean. Of course. It's been all over the news. You have to hope it's featured as prominently when he's found to be innnocent of all charges.

And what is it anyway with news bulletins these days? Hate to sound like an old fart, of the "things were better in my day" variety - but here goes: is it just me, or is every single TV news reporter now aged about 12? Honestly. What the hell would they know?

YES, I understand that you have to pay older, more experienced reporters more, and YES, I understand that viewers will still watch the bulletin, regardless of the quality of the reportage, but, I mean, my God, where is the pride in their product? With reporters who've been around for five minutes, maybe not even in the same city they're now reporting on and in, there's no chance of any historical context or perspective. Even worse, the basic skills of news journalism are becoming non-existent.

Case in point: the swimming again. Grant Hackett has been performing poorly in the minor events. Swimming legend Kieren Perkins gets on the radio and mentions that he's discovered that Hackett has been going through some emotional upheavals that may be affecting his times. Hackett holds a media conference the following day. Does anyone there think to ASK him what's troubling him? No. Or if they did, it didn't make it into that night's stories. You wonder if the reporters even monitored the other media closely enough to pick up the cues.